Thursday, 10 January 2013

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza's housing minister said Thursday that the United Arab Emirates has donated $50 million to build a housing project for Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

The "prisoners city," which will be located in central Gaza, will be named after the UAE leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, minister of public works and housing Yousef Subhi Al-Ghariz said. more

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -- An Egyptian official said the leaders of Hamas and Fatah factions had agreed at talks in Cairo on Wednesday to implement a long-delayed reconciliation pact, although it was unclear if the deal would extend beyond holding more talks.

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement based in the West Bank and Khaled Mashaal of the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip met face-to-face for the first time in over a year to discuss how to implement their 2011 deal.

The rivals fell out badly when Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah by force in 2007. But they have drawn closer since Israel's assault on Gaza in November, in which Hamas claimed victory, and a diplomatic win by Abbas the same month in which the United Nations voted to recognize Palestine as a "non-member state".

"It was agreed that sides would begin immediately to implement the previously agreed mechanism of the agreement signed," a senior Egyptian official involved in the talks, who declined to be named, told Reuters by phone from Cairo. more